The Atlantic Community was a German-American project to apply

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...

ideas to transatlantic foreign policy strategy. Launched in April 2007 as an undertaking of the Atlantic Initiative, the Atlantic Community aims at facilitating discussion between young thinkers and established members of the foreign policy realm in order to increase participation in a system that, in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, is often closed off to the public at large. The Advisory Board of the Atlantic Community is

non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers s ...

, and includes journalist Marvin Kalb, UK

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

Lord Wallace, and German diplomat Jürgen Chrobog as members. In January 2009 the Atlantic Community was selected as a "Landmark in the Land of Ideas" b
Germany: Land of Ideas
Germany: Land of Ideas is a shared initiative of the

German government The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Federal Chancellor and cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's or ...

, commerce, and industry under the patronage of former Federal President

Horst Köhler Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU (of which he is a member) and the CSU, as well as the ...

Mission

Atlantic Community has more than 7000 members, including future policymakers, think-tankers, journalists, academics, students, and active citizens. Its mission is to encourage open and democratic dialogue on the challenges facing Europe and North America while also giving a voice to a new generation of thinkers. Young leaders are provided the opportunity to publish and debate side by side with established experts, and to have their policy ideas seen by senior officials. The members of the Atlantic Community can share and discuss their ideas by posting op-eds,

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

, and comments on the website. The best analysis and policy recommendations are summarized in Atlantic Memos that are presented to

decision maker In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...

s in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and EU countries.

Activities

The main feature of the Atlantic Community is the Policy Workshop, where new commentary is published from think-tankers, journalists and decision makers working in subjects which are relevant to the transatlantic partners. Among contributors to the Workshops were

Eckart von Klaeden Eckart Peter Hans von Klaeden (born 18 November 1965 in Hanover) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister of State at the German Chancellery from 2009 to 2013. Education and early career Eckart von K ...

, Minister of State at the German Chancellery, Karsten D. Voigt, the Coordinator for German-American Cooperation in the

German Foreign Office , logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg , logo_width = 260 px , image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg , picture_width = 300px , image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building , headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...

, Julianne Smith of the American think tank CSIS, and current

Chatham House Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...

director Robin Niblett. Members of the Atlantic Community then comment on these strategies and add their own ideas below the original article. The finished product, called an Executive Summary, is a one-page policy memo in PDF format that summarizes the

netroots Netroots is a term coined in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong to describe political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting t ...

suggestions and discussion from the community. In 2011 Atlantic Community celebrated the tenth anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 by launching an op-ed competition
Women on Transatlantic Security
. The initiative was sponsored by the

Public Diplomacy Division and the United States Mission to NATO. The competition aimed at empowering young women working in the peace and security areas and encouraging them to participate in debates on international security issues. The next two Policy Workshop competitions wer
"Ideas with Impact: Students Advise Decision Makers"
an
"Your Ideas, Your NATO"
which took place respectively in May 2011 and May 2012 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The former Policy Workshop competition focused on policy recommendations on

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

; the winners of the competition presented their policy proposals to Philip D. Murphy, the US Ambassador to Germany,

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

Foreign Policy Spokesman Philipp Mißfelder and their policy advisers. The latter competition concentrated on

values, NATO partnerships after the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...

, and Smart Defense; the competition winners presented their policy recommendations to Philip D. Murphy and Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense Christian Schmidt (CSU). The most recent competition was
Shaping Our NATO: Young Voices on the Warsaw Summit 2016
. It focused on encouraging students and recent graduates under 28 years of age to produce innovative solutions to either contemporary or future problems. The four categories ranged from how NATO can increase solidarity amongst its members, to suggesting ways that the Alliance should learn from its mistakes and adapt to change. Apart from competitions and workshops, Atlantic Community provides daily top press commentaries, regular up-dates on the best of think-tanks' publications, and conducts expert surveys. For example, in April 2010 the think tank carried out a NATO sponsored survey of Russian experts aimed at gauging the path of NATO-Russia relations. Jimmy Wales, the founder of the

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

, was featured among the decision makers interviewed by the Atlantic Community.

Deutschlands Agenda

The German-language

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

Deutschlands Agenda is the most recent project of the Atlantic Initiative, launched in November 2011. Like atlantic-community.org, this platform concentrates on foreign policy; however, it especially aims to raise awareness as well as strengthen the debate on German foreign policy issues. In an ever more connected world, foreign policy factors have to be taken into account while making national policy decisions. By explaining these interactions as well as initiating a discussion on the topic between citizens, politicians and opinion leaders, Deutschlands Agenda looks to accustom citizens to the global context of decisions. By appealing especially to the younger generation and the

ging community, it not only wishes to deepen

citizen participation Public participation, also known as citizen participation or patient and public involvement, is the inclusion of the public in the activities of any organization or project. Public participation is similar to but more inclusive than stakeholder en ...

, but also to actively and sustainably frame the German political dialogue and to eventually create a strong strategic community in Germany. Like atlantic-community.org, Deutschlands Agenda will condense fruitful discussions into executive briefings (Memos) and send them for consideration to key decision makers.

Sources

Women on Transatlantic Security
''NATO'' News June 30, 2011
Broadening the Security Debate - Transatlantic Issues
''World Policy Institute'', February 8, 2011,
Game, Reset and Good Match?
''NATO Review'', April 2010
The Wiki Way to Create Change in Global Politics
Atlantic Community, February 23, 2010
Johannes Bohnen
''BMW Stiftung'' German-language publications

''Die Welt'', May 4, 2011

''brand eins'', July 2010

''BILD'', July 22, 2010

''Frankfurter Allgemeine hochschulanzeiger'', November 16, 2009

''Frankfurter Allgemeine'', February 26, 2009

External links

Atlantic Community

Atlantic Initiative

Deutschlands Agenda
{{authority control Political and economic think tanks Foreign policy and strategy think tanks United States–European relations Think tanks established in 2007